Triton Suites Russell

... and beautiful. Then we get to hole in the rock - exactly what it says on the tin and we manage to get the boat through it. The boat then cruises back past all the islands with its many beaches and camping spots! Highly recommend this as a place to visit! On my last day Karin and I go far about a 15km walk through the woods, spotting more of NZ's native trees and plants and walking along stretches of the beach. My visit here has been absolutely ...

... dolphins' trip and were lucky enough to find a pod of around 30 bottlenosed dolphins who frolicked for our entertainment. Unfortunately, as there were two wee baby dolphins we weren't allowed to get in and swim with them - the rules are rightly very strict on this. It was still great to watch them playing in their natural environment. As luck would have it our stay in Russell ...

... and Oz is huge. We can get to the next town in a couple of hours and there are townships and people living all over the place. We can also drive without worrying about petrol and water..woo hoo. After a couple of screaming parking disasters (we are not used to driving in traffic any more. I stalled the van 3 times and paul shouted at me) we made it to the Bay of ...

... I think it was cut down four times altogether before some sort of 'peace' was sorted out. We spent the day on the tall ship, R Tucker Thompson, sailing round the Bay of Islands where there are about 144 island. This was all very exciting, and because it was an 'interactive' trip you got to do things like pull up the sails, wind up the ropes in anti-clockwise circles and take the helm (which is the steering wheel)! I didn ...

... it has the treaty house which is made entirely of wood and therefore has a lot of very impressive native carvings. I also saw a performance which included a welcome ceremony and the haka, which i have to say was really impressive. The grounds also had a gian wooden canoe that was sailed to New Zealand from the island of Hawiki. That afternoon i took a boat trip around the bay of islands and eventually to 'the hole in the rock' which is as the name suggests ...

... Kauri trees - a protected tree because they take 1,000 years to grow minimum. When NZ was colonised the British like the Kauri trees because they have no branches until the very top thus making them very strong to build with. We then went to some world famous toilets at Kawakawa! An Austrian artist, Hundertwasser used to spend all of his spare time in Kawakawa and 5 years before his death in 2000, the council asked him to design the public toilets. They are the most ...

... are rising and they're proposing to the government to cut taxes on fuel to help the motorist! 'Helping the motorist'. Could you EVER imagine the UK even considering such a thing?? Also here, when they talk about climate change, they don't blame anyone except the weather gods! They are so geared up to be eco-friendly, insulate their houses well, recycle and be energy efficient. It's so easy, why is it such a struggle in the UK? Our government just uses the current ...

... in the same area which we went to see including the 3 sisters and Te Matua Ngahere, the second largest Kauri. After a good walk through the forest, we continued in the car slightly north to stop for lunch beside a river. As we were tucking in to our cheese sarnies, Henry spotted a guy who looked distinctly like the profile of the guy who had allegedly raped a girl in the Bay of Islands only a few days before. He took a photo as we weren´t sure but when we got back to the hotel and ...

... as possible and swept out a few times a day because of all the grass and sand we drag in from our shoes. Dean came back full of the joys, he didn't actually catch any fish but he got loads of bites and apparantly, that's exciting enough. Dean is in heaven here, he has discovered that the beach in front of us is absolutely littered with cockles. He busied himself gathering them up and came back with a big carrier bag full which he boiled to make them open and now he has got ...

... that Bex &amp; Hutchy had given us for Xmas. Cheers!<br><br>The fish itself was worth a mention because it had a very strong taste, almost like smoked mackrel, but it was a white fish. I've forgotten the name but I'll find out later and amend this accordingly. Takhita or something... <br><br>(Updated later - it's actually ...